The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-03-12
A CHRISTIAN FUNERAL.

u
The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
welded great influence during life, and
his influence was for good; now that
he is dead it is hoped his influence for
good, in one direction at least. will be
powerful and continuing. We refer to
the matter OF mourning display. He
often decried the practice of gaudy and
extravagsnt funerals. and was emphatic
il his denunciations of the custom
which requires mourners to go into
black, to array themselves in Grape and
surround themselves with sombre at
mosphere and dreary trappipgs. Know
ing what would best please him, when
he died his family did just what fashion
demanded they must not do-they went
directly contrary to the custom and
practice OF society and civilization
foa ages; they discarded all outward
snowy evidences of death; they cast
black out of sight. and refused
to bring forth the Grape; they
did not close the doors and shut out
the light and the fresh air, but threw
up the blinds and pushed open the win
dows, letting in the bright sunshine and
the pure air; they did not drape the
rooms and the house with emblems of
mourning, but hung bright flowers on
the door post, and filled the house with
brilliant and fragrant bloom and
the inspiring, cheering green of
nature; they did not go into sack
cloth and ashes, and weep and wall,
but on the contrary arrayed themselves
in bright colors, and put on cheerful
demesnor. The church where the body
is now lying is not made dingy, re-
pulsive and awful with pillars and fes-
toons of black, but is decorated and
made gay with flowers and vines
while the coffin is completely hidden by
the bank of flowers in which it rests;
| there is music in the air, and so far as
there can be at such time, there is
rejoicing.
We doubt that there was ever before
such a funeral as this, where the mourn
ing is all in the hearts, none of it being
seen on the surface. 1t is to be hoped
there will be many more such funerals;
indeed, that the present "barbaric Gus
TOM will be abolished and better one
adopted.
The fashionable funeral is reflection
upon Christianity; it casts a doubt
upon the protested belief of Christians,
and asserts a superstition that is
stronger than the faith in Christ. The
hope, the belief of the Christian is not
that death ends all, but that
it is the beginning of eter-
nal Joy or the commencement of ages
of suffering; to the Christian death
means the casting aside. the freeing
from pain and suffering and the en-
trance upon career which is all content
ment. all happiness, all peace, all bliss.
Then why should we make ourselves so
miserable when death comes to those
we lover If the friend is going to
realms Of bliss, ever more to be free
from the aches and pains, the suffer-
ings and disappointments, the troubles
and Affections of mortality, isn't it
broadly inconsistent that We should
conduct ourselves as if We regarded him
as gone as the plants go, never more to
appear, or worse, gone to everlasting
fortunes in an unknown world? Rea-
son, intelligence, Christianity and con-
sistency all say that Beecher was right
in asking that nobody mourn over his
escape from a temporal existence to a
life Of ecstatic bliss. We are glad that
his people had the courage to DEFY
fashion and conventionalism, and by
outward demeanor and appearance, at
least, show that they believe the great
preacher has gone to that heaven he has
preached for half a century, and to
lead his fellows whittier he has de-
voted his ability, his energy and his
responsiveness. This conspicuous ex-
ample having been set, let,us hope that
others will be brave enough to follow it,
and that funerals will not be made
doubly awful by the demands of bar
barous fashion.